Many users of this site recommend google wifi,is it really good?What's the pros and cons?

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Mike

Upvotes from: Erik minku

I gave up on the two-node NetGear RBK-50 (which worked well for about 12 hours before the hub node unceremoniously failed) and purchased a Google WiFi three-pack while it was on sale. My objective was to get good coverage up in the 800 square foot attic/guest area and also in the back yard. There is a large brick chimney in the middle of my house which seems to complicate the positioning but I've found a configuration which gives me reliable strong coverage in all locations. The levels fluctuate a bit but the attic node never falls below "OK" (100Mbps compared to the 220Mbps I get to the other satellite). Both of these speeds are considerably faster than my anemic 25Mbps Internet service and still plenty fast enough to stream HD video from my NAS. When Kenya joins the civilized world and I can get affordable gigabit service, I will consider adding a fourth node. 
 
For reference, my semi-split house has two 800 square foot halves, each with three levels (if you include the basement, garage, and workshop). So, it's a 3200 square foot house with another 1600 below grade sitting on a 75'x100' lot. The WiFi signal is usable out to the street and to the corners of the backyard. 
 
PRO: It has a very nice interface and although somewhat pared down still makes it easy to configure static DHCP entries and to manage port forwarding (e.g. to my QNAP NAS). I just wish I could run it on my desktop. 
 
CON: I'm not happy sharing this much information with Google and would prefer that the management app not work outside my LAN. Sure, it's handy but it is also unnecessary and more than a little bit creepy. (To be fair, the Google WiFi Privacy Policy explicitly states: "Importantly, the Google Wifi app and your Wifi points do not track the websites you visit or collect the content of any traffic on your network.") If my daughters were younger, this nanny functionality would be useful but I would prefer to be able to disable this access now. On the other hand, I am seriously considering getting a single node for my mother for whom I provide remote IT support. 
 
Finally - I really wish these things had a wall-mount. I would be a lot happier if I could mount these up high and out of sightlines. I'd be perfectly happy running cables through the wall to do this. The USB-C power cable provided is nice and long but perhaps not quite as long as necessary for this purpose.
 

Alex - designer

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I had the AirPort Extreme. Two of them in fact. I replaced them with the Google WiFi system when it first came out. I have a 3,000 sq ft house with two floors and a full, unfinished basement. I did find that I needed MORE than the three pack. I had full coverage, but some areas were much weaker. So I have SIX of them in my house on one big mesh network. I tried adding a 7th, but the system can't quite handle that many and I had major problems. I think six is probably the max you can add on one network. But I have great coverage now with the six and absolutely love the features and ease of use.

Aamir

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I've had mine (3 units) for a couple of months now. I haven't had any issues. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

Vasily

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I have 3 pucks. I love the strength of the signal all over the house. However, Google WiFi only see's a quarter of my actual speed. Google WiFi care unfortunately can not fix the issue. They blame my ISP. Supposedly my ISP does/uses V-LAN tagging. My ISP has confirmed several times they do not have V-LAN tagging. The first support tech didn't even know what V-LAN tagging is that is. Google tells me in an email that because my IP address does not end with a 1 or a 54 this tell's them it is V-LAN tagging. If this is the case, billions of IP addresses are V-LAN tagging

Tony

Upvotes from:

I just installed it last night 3x in a big house, it kills my last router, and having duel ethernet on each device makes me love it. Happy to know itll be good for at least the next six months.

Aramis

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Have the Google WiFi 3 pack, I keep one upstairs in my man cave as my main router, and then have 2 downstairs, one in the kitchen and another in the den. I absolutely love it! Has increased my overall speed and reliability of my wifi network. I'm an IT Technician and install wireless solutions for businesses daily, this is the best WiFi solution I have seen for home use ever! I also have a smart home with multiple smart devices around the house (Google Home of course) and all my smart stuff works fluidly with them. Absolutely pro choice for a home wireless network. A real no brainer.

keith

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Bad experience here with Google WiFi. It worked perfectly fine within my apartment but as soon as I went to my neighbor on the other side of the wall, WiFi performance fell to less than five percent of its original speed. My side of the wall, 300 megabits - the other side of a relatively thin wall, 20 maybe 30 megabits. This was after several reboots and reconfigurations. I did not buy more than one and that may be the reason for poor performance on the other side of the wall but for 30$ more I went with a Linksys 3-antenna router which not only works almost through the entire other apartment at close to rated speed, but also downstairs in our carpark (!) Perhaps I misunderstand what a mesh router is used for in an apartment setting but it was a dismal step down for me.

Erik

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I replaced a six year old Netgear router with the Google WiFi system last weekend. The ease in setup was great and my speed has doubled. I"m actually getting the speed I pay for now. I love the app and how easy it is to manage the network and see what's going on. I'm very happy with this system. I have a 2,000 SF house but went ahead with the three pack.

MarcoFalke

Upvotes from:

I was actually using the Google WiFi system for the longest time and in the beginning I couldn't complain and the speeds were pretty consistent throughout the house. I live in a 2 story town home so mesh system was definitely needed to get full coverage. But just now this past August my Google WiFi just stopped giving me my speeds that I was paying for so i figured I do a system reset because maybe it just needed to be cleared up and after that reset I could never get the Google WiFi to work again, so I took it as a sign that it was time for a new system and I this time around I wanted a system that had a built in modem so that I would have double NAT issues and so that my Tivo could communicate with my mesh network because it never did before and boy was that the best decision. I opted for the Netgear Orbi with the built in modem, astronomical price but totally worth every penny. I am so happy with the netgear orbi and I was skeptical at first because I hadn't owned a netgear router in years and before i never really cared for them but I have no complaints so far with the Orbi. I get my full speed in just about every single spot in the house, even right outside my house so my phone connects I even walk in. So if you are looking for a new router definitely listen to Majestechs advice everything he said in the video is very accurate!! great video sorry for the long comment just wanted to share my story!

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